State volleyball: Eagan advances to Class 3A final

Kathy Gillen-Melville coached the Eagan volleyball team to four state championships from 1997 to 2003. Taylr McNeil, a senior hitter for the Wildcats, was a member of the Lakeville North state championship team her freshman year.

The pair have a wealth of knowledge they plan to share with the rest of the team before Eagan takes on Delano in the Class 3A final at 5 p.m. Saturday. Just what, they won't divulge.

"That's top secret," Gillen-Melville said after the top-seeded Wildcats' 25-21, 19-25, 25-17, 25-13 victory over No. 4 Eden Prairie in a semifinal match Friday at the Xcel Energy Center.

"I've got plenty to share with my teammates, but nothing I'm going to share with anyone else," said McNeil, who had 24 kills to get Eagan into the championship match for the first time in a decade.

Eagan DS Kelly Madison makes a diving save in the third set. Eagan beat Eden Prairie 3 sets to 1 to win the semifinal match-up of the Minnesota AAA Girl's Volleyball Tournament at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Friday morning. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

Eagan (29-2) also got 13 kills from Brie Orr and 27 assists from Madeline McNeil in the Wildcats' second win in three matches against Eden Prairie (22-10) this season.

"They really came up with a great game plan that took our middles out of it," Eden Prairie coach Chad Becker said. "They were serving us short and getting our middles really out of rhythm. They executed that as well as any team I've ever seen do that against us. And when it happens on the state tournament stage, it gets magnified."

After the teams split the first two sets, Eagan took control of the match by frustrating Eden Prairie with a variety of serves. Becker was issued a yellow-card violation in Game 3 for venting his frustrations to officials and was forced to sit for the remainder of the match.

"Eagan took us out of sorts," he said. "Our defense played phenomenal all match long. We couldn't have been throwing bodies around any better than we did. We just couldn't get anything going offensively. That's a credit to Eagan."

For Gillen-Melville, the Eagan coach, it felt like the good old days.

"I had forgotten just how much fun it is to be in this arena," she said.

Wildcats teammates, from left, Celia Bertsch, Kelly Madison, Madeline McNeil and Alix Putnam react after scoring the winning point in the fourth set as Eagan beat Eden Prairie in four sets to win their state Class 3A semifinal match at Xcel Center in St. Paul on Friday, November 8, 2013. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

"These girls are creating a lifetime memory that they will be telling their grandkids about someday. Every match here at the state tournament is special. It doesn't get old. That's why I'm still coaching."

And that's why Taylr McNeil left a championship team at Lakeville North to see if she could duplicate that success at Eagan.

"I really am hoping to end my prep career on a high note," said McNeil, selected the national freshman of the year by prepvolleyball.com in 2010. "Winning that championship is just the way to do it."